The creator of a Black history archive is helping future generations learn about the many accomplishments of African Americans, past and present.
"We just lost Hank Aaron, we just lost Cicely Tyson," said Julieanna Richardson, "The Historymakers" Founder and President. "They're leaving here in rapid succession."
Richardson has made it her life's mission to make sure the accomplishments of people like Aaron and Tyson are not forgotten.
"The Historymakers" is the nation's largest African American video oral history archive.
"I want to give the Black community their place in history. And I want to make sure we leave a documentary record," she said.
"The Historymakers" is essentially a digital repository for the Black experience. Its nearly 3,400 interviews include leaders in 15 different categories, from the arts, to business, to politics, medicine, and religion.
Many of them are well-known.
Even a young Barack Obama, then a senator from Illinois, thinking about his future.
"My career is still largely ahead of me as opposed to behind me," Former President Obama said in the archive.
Others were not famous at all but succeeded despite the odds.
Their stories formed the backbone, not just of Black history, but also of America's history, like chemist Sondra Akins.
"That was the way to disprove the myth of Black inferiority," Akins said.
As the list of "Historymakers" continues to grow, the hope is that the unique, first-person testimony will give future generations a more complete look at the lives and legacy of African Americans.
"We wanted to be able to show all the areas we have impacted not only U.S. society but the world," Richardson said.
"The Historymakers" one-of-a-kind collection is housed permanently at the Library of Congress.
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